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New Canaan health director outlines modest budget shift, staffing plans and service offerings
Summary
Health Director Amy Lahaney told the Health and Human Services Subcommittee that the department’s proposed budget shows a roughly $5,000 net change and a year-over-year decrease of about 6.4%, explained staffing and certification challenges, and proposed a new health-wellness coach training to expand one-on-one screenings and follow-up.
Amy Lahaney, New Canaan’s director of health, presented the health department’s budget and program updates to the Health and Human Services Subcommittee on Jan. 30, 2026.
Lahaney said the department’s proposed revenues and expenses reflect an overall net change of about $5,000 from the prior year and that “the health department is down negative 6.4% year over year primarily due to a few factors.” She cited reductions in salary and overtime lines and cuts to some software subscriptions as the main drivers of that decline. Lahaney also said a part-time public health nurse position (12 hours per week) is currently funded by a grant that will end, and the town will need to absorb that cost going forward.
Why it matters: the presentation comes during budget season ahead of the board of finance and town council reviews; changes to grant funding and personnel lines can affect service continuity for local clinics, pool and food-service inspections, and public-health outreach.
Lahaney reviewed core services and local counts: the department inspects 106 food-service establishments, manages roughly 60 private well permits a year, engages with five public drinking-water systems when issues arise, issued about 90 subsurface sewage permits last year, and inspects roughly 43 salons and 22 public pools. She described community-facing work including monthly QPR suicide-prevention sessions, health screenings at Schoolhouse, Lapham and Vine Cottage, tick identification and testing, and participation in the Connecticut Child Vaccine Program to provide required childhood immunizations.
On workforce and certifications, Lahaney said the department rewrote job descriptions to create entry-level pathways and allow staff to advance internally. She described state-level delays in processing certifications: “Kelsey worked in Monroe prior to this. Her paperwork for her first part of the food was submitted in May. We didn't get the results of them reviewing it until December,” she said, calling the slow state review a bottleneck that can limit which staff may perform food inspections.
Lahaney proposed adding a health-wellness coach certification line so a health program planner could work one-on-one with residents on A1C, blood pressure and blood-sugar results and help them develop individualized improvement plans. She also described modest new expense lines for equipment repairs and meeting/program costs.
Committee members asked about outreach metrics and whether the department tracks social-media engagement and program demographics. Lahaney said the department runs Facebook and a newer Instagram page, is prioritizing building followers before implementing tracking, and that program attendance is reported monthly to the HHS commission.
Unidentified Speaker 1 praised the presentation: “Excellent overview and summary, Amy, for being here in such a short period of time.” The department expects no further material changes before the town council vote on the budget scheduled for April.
Next steps: Lahaney’s proposal will be reviewed as part of the town’s budget process; committee members requested follow-up on specific lists (for example the department’s email subscriber counts) and timeline details for grant-funded positions.
